Most current patterns of production and consumption follow a linear “extract, produce, consume, dispose” model. This means that, on average, goods lose 95% of their material value after a single use. Moreover, many goods are only used infrequently – the average car spends just 2% of its lifetime on the road, for example. Climate change and environmental pollution are among the consequences of this highly inefficient economic system. Raw material extraction and processing is already responsible for 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress today – and global material consumption could double by 2060.
It is thus clear that the way we use our natural resources needs to change. We must shift away from a linear model of value creation that generates huge amounts of waste, and move instead towards an economic model where the value of materials and products is kept as high as possible for as long as possible. This will call for a shift in focus away from waste and recycling and towards responsible resource management.
Circular economy principles are key to a sustainable economic system. We now need to ensure that these principles are widely adopted in practice. Ultimately, we need a circular economy if we are to meet our climate and sustainability targets, both in Germany and throughout the EU, especially in the context of the European Green Deal.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Weber, acatech Vice-President
Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland
The Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland (CEID) has set itself the challenge of creating a Roadmap for a sustainable circular economy in Germany. Within the initiative, actors from science, industry and civil society work together to accomplish this goal by identifying new ways of building a circular economy. The CEID is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The initiative is executed under the guidance of acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering in cooperation with SYSTEMIQ.
In interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral working groups, some 130 experts consider how to enable and implement Circular Economic models, exploring potential fields of application and discussing the conditions that could facilitate successful implementation. The Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland is developing targets for the transition, with a focus on the following themes:
- Circular business models and digital technologies as drivers for innovation
- New value networks for batteries and packaging
- Framework conditions for a circular transformation and assessment of circularity’s economic potential
The findings and the reports of the CEID working groups provided the basis for identifying the opportunities to move our economy towards more circularity and developing the recommendations. These insights were synthesised in the Circular Economy Roadmap for Germany and were summarised in a consolidated statement with the aim to provide an overarching guidance for society as a whole. The Roadmap was published and formally presented to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on 11 May 2021.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the goal of keeping resources in the materials cycle for longer and promoting their reuse through higher recycling rates. Doing so will help to protect natural resources and significantly reduce CO2 emissions. A strong, resource-efficient circular economy must ensure that goods are developed and produced with these goals in mind right from the outset. It is also vital to get the public on board, since they share a large part of the responsibility for how we deal with waste and items that are no longer usable. The BMBF fully supports the Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland’s efforts to accomplish these goals.
Oda Keppler, Head of Directorate Sustainability; Provision for the Future (BMBF)
Battery passport “Made with Germany” – implementing a new generation of digital product handling
Electromobility is the key to climate-friendly mobility. In Germany, the government has set the goal of getting 15 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 in order to achieve the climate targets. Accordingly, the ramp-up of electromobility will continue to gain momentum in the coming years. With the increasing number of electric vehicles, the demand for lithium-ion batteries for the vehicle drive system (traction batteries) is also growing. As an essential component of the electric vehicle, it is becoming increasingly important that these batteries are produced, used and recycled sustainably.
The consortium project Battery Passport “Made with Germany” aims to contribute to an EU and globally harmonised applicable battery passport by the end of 2024. The project includes content-related and technical standards, coordination with stakeholders, demonstration and analytical benefit assessment. The development of scientifically sound content, co-developed by industrial partners and validated by civil society actors, will ensure maximum acceptance and benefit.
The Battery Passport supports the sustainable and circular management of vehicle traction batteries by providing a digital infrastructure for the documentation and exchange of basic information and update-relevant technical data. In particular, data that comprehensively describe the sustainability and accountability of the supply chain, such as GHG footprint, working conditions in raw material extraction and battery condition determination, are documented.
In dialogue for a secure and sustainable supply of metals and industrial minerals from secondary raw material sources
Germany’s supply of secondary raw materials will continue to gain in importance in the future. The recycling of raw materials can not only reduce Germany’s dependence on raw material imports, but also achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to support climate protection.
In dialogue with industry, science and administration, options for action will be developed within the framework of the Dialogue Platform on Recycling Raw Materials (Dialogplattform Recyclingrohstoffe), aiming at improving the secure and sustainable supply of German industry with metals and industrial minerals from secondary raw material sources. This can strengthen Germany’s competitiveness and innovation leadership and accelerate the achievement of the greenhouse gas reduction target laid down in the Climate Change Act.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has commissioned the German Mineral Resource Agency (DERA) at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) with the implementation of the Dialogue Platform on Recycling Raw Materials. The office of the platform is managed by DERA and acatech, as scientific partners.
Harnessing the power of medium-sized companies for a Circular Economy in Germany
The climate crisis, biodiversity loss and plastic in the world’s oceans show us that we urgently need to change the way we use natural resources. The concept of the Circular Economy has the potential to lead a systemic change that enables us as a society to operate within our planetary boundaries.
A Circular Economy offers the opportunity for companies to develop new, sustainable and future-oriented business models. For the success of this desired transformation process, however, it is of central importance that Circular Business Models are not only taken up by a few pioneers, but are also broadly diffused through comprehensive market penetration.
Particularly in Germany, medium-sized companies play a decisive role in this transformation process: as the backbone of the German economy, they can demonstrate how successful implementation works and just like a catalyst enable and accelerate the transition to Circular Economy.
With the project Circular Economy Card Deck for Business Model Workshops (CE-CA-WO) , funded by the The German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU), acatech, the WWF Germany and the Johannes Kepler University Linz have set themselves the goal of informing medium-sized companies about the most important contents of a Circular Economy and Circular Business Models and enabling them to put their existing business models to the test and to align them towards circularity.
Used part recycling: Artificial intelligence paves the way
The joint project EIBA was launched in September 2019 with the aim of developing a system that evaluates the condition of returned cores with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
Currently, the identification and evaluation process in remanufacturing is largely manual. Until recently, this process seemed too complex for automated data processing: product numbers are barely legible or non-existent on the cores, each returned part looks unique due to dirt, corrosion and other signs of use, and there are also a large number of almost identical-looking versions for each individual product. As a result, cores can be assessed manually, but for economic reasons the skilled workers only have a few seconds at their disposal and the procedure is prone to errors. In general, remanufacturing in product classes with relatively low product values has so far hardly been economically viable due to the low level of automation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) now opens up new possibilities. The EIBA project is researching the use of digital sensor technology and AI to improve the identification and fault detection of used parts in remanufacturing. Sensor-based data is evaluated with the help of AI in combination with further information and formulated into a decision recommendation.
The research project aims to increase the attractiveness of remanufacturing. On the one hand, the use of the AI system should reduce the error rate in the identification and evaluation of used parts and, on the other hand, make remanufacturing profitable for an expanded product spectrum. This project will make an important contribution to closing the loop through digital technologies.
Making Circular Economy Count – What you can’t measure, you can’t manage
In the last five years, business leaders and policymakers have been paying more and more attention to the circular economy concept, which represents a possible solution to achieve absolute resource reduction by decoupling economic growth from unsustainable resource consumption while building resilience against future pandemics and the impact of climate change.
With a narrowing window of opportunity for systemic change, policymakers need to measure the progress towards a circular economy at a national level to effectively steer the transition from a linear to a circular economy (CE). The report “Making the Circular Economy Count”, funded by the SUN Foundation and published by acatech, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and SYSTEMIQ , evaluates the current state of research and practice on circular economy (CE) metrics.
The report will enable policymakers to:
- review the existing CE metrics;
- evaluate the national transition progress, using a set of metrics based on key dimensions of the circular economy; and
- understand why national monitoring should be complemented by standardized reporting mechanisms to evaluate resource flows at company level.
The report finds that a practical, feasible set of CE metrics can be applied to support national policymakers in steering the transition – and in evaluating whether we have made the right decisions to support future CE development.
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